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Metagenics nieuws

24

JAN

A cooperation between Metagenics and Weerwerk

Work is an important lever to activate people of groups with potential. Offering adapted assignments, suitable for the target group of employees, is however a real challenge. We constantly have to keep looking for a balance between the profitability of the social economy company and the care for our employees.

Weerwerk, the custom-made work company associated to the Sleutel, employs people who are far from the job market. Spread over the regions of Ghent, Antwerp and Roeselare, every year, Weerwerk guides some 100 adults with a history of addiction towards durable employment.

Workshop supervisor Mathieu De Bruyne: ““It is important to have enough stability in the job offer. One of the clients we often work for, is Metagenics, a leading player on the food supplement market. We had our first talk in June 2016. The mission of Metagenics is to help people live happier, healthier lives. Weerwerk’s vision: People, chances, growing. Work as a methodology! Based on these two foundations, not much more was needed to start operating hand in hand”.

“Weerwerk is responsible for the packaging of Metagenics food supplements. It is remarkable that such a company choses to work with the social economy,” says Mathieu. Metagenics, established in Ostend in 1989, is a market leader in products for micro-nutritional support for young and old. It is a strongly growing company which employs about 260 people in Europe, 160 of them in Ostend. They coordinate all of their activities in Ostend. Besides the production department with stock and shipping activities, it is also the headquarters of R&D, administration, sales, marketing and customer service.

“For me a club soda”

Mathieu: “Every time Rogier pays us a visit, he asks for soda water. We normally don’t have soda water here at Weerwerk. But today, because Rogier is coming, we have specially gone out and bought it. Rogier and his team are the people who have connected Weerwerk to Metagenics”. He leads the team that follows up closely the operational process within Weerwerk and coaches us from a distance. His team defines clear boundaries and gives us tips and tricks for “lean” working. His team has also taught the supervisors of Weerwerk how to work with “visuals”…

Mathieu: ”Metagenics is a company which takes the time to come and explain things to our employees on team days. This is greatly appreciated by our people! An important, large company as Metagenics, world leader in micro-nutrition, is at the same time a strongly socially committed company”.

Mathieu: “Thanks to this assignment, we now have clear parameters to evaluate as from when someone is able to work in the regular packaging industry”

“10.500.000 sachets”

Today, packing these vitamins, as one of the fixed assignments, provides work stability. Mathieu: “Every year, with the people of the activating shopfloor, we process 10.500.000 sachets for Metagenics. This has made it possible for us to expand our team of employees in 2018. At the same time, we have been able to grow in methodical operations. We now have clear parameters to evaluate as from when the employees are able to keep up with the pace to work in for instance the regular packing industry”.

Thanks to the cooperation, on the activating shopfloor, we are able not only able to provide operating activities, but logistic activities as well. “We can make people experience what it is really like to function within a production unit based on the number of performed work sets ”, Mathieu explains.

“How many pallets?”

Through this assignment, Weerwerk functions as a fixed link in a larger whole. “We are linked to the regular economy, and the impact of this is greater than what you may assume. Every week, Metagenics comes to deliver ánd to collect. This is handled by a professional team, supervised by Mattijs. Every week, 10 to 15 pallets of packagings are collected by Metagenics. The people taking care of the transport each time show a deep respect for our employees. They make jokes. They keep working at a good pace all the time. Our people can really learn a lot from that. Together with Metagenics we create a specific and realistic job target, supported by en evidence based way of working and warmth and respect for people”, Mathieu concludes.

The fact that a company as Metagenics takes the time and space to come and explain things to our employees on team days, is greatly appreciated on the shop floor